Sketch of a wood anemone

Ruskin first visited the Winnington School in 1859 and made another fifteen visits there between then and May 1868. He gave the girls drawing lessons and talked with them on religion and other subjects. He also wrote Sunday letters to his 'Birds' or 'Babies', of whom Mary Leadbetter and Dora Livesey were two, his friendship with Dora lasted forty years until the end of his life. Of the present drawing Mary Capes writing to Dora in 1906 says; 'I am sending you a little New Year gift, a treasure that I have had many years which I know you will value for the dear Donor's sake. I can't bear the idea of such treasures falling into hands which will not appreciate them when I am gone.' (Wilson, op.cit., p. 121).

The coat of arms (illustrated Wilson, op.cit, p. 2) was granted to Ruskin's father, John James, in 1835. The motto is Age quod agis, John Ruskin added the phrase-To-Day.